Kai would have walked away if she wasn’t her sister.Instead, Kai sat in shock, rooted to her chair as she observed her sister’s unorthodox feeding frenzy.
But Morlie continued without pause.
If they still recordedGuinness Books of World Recordsfactoids, Kai didn’t doubt it would feature her baby sister on the front page at the rate and speed she’d finished the meal.Every last drop, including sopping up the gravy with her last crust of bread and tipping up the bowl the vegetables had been in to drink the small amount of juice that settled down at the bottom.
“Oh, my....that hit the spot.”Morlie leaned back in her chair, rubbed her flat stomach, and sighed in satisfaction.
Kai handed her a towel to clean up her face and hands.“Since there’s nothing left, I guess you’re finished.”
As she cleaned up, Morlie’s gaze met her eyes, horrified.“Kai, I am so sorry.I’m so selfish.You didn’t even get anything.”Tossing the towel on the table, she continued, “I’ve never been so ravenous.I couldn’t think straight.”
Kai chuckled.“Ravenous.I don’t think that’s an appropriate word for what you forced me to witness.”
Her sister glanced around at the wreckage on the tray and laughed.“It is quite disgraceful.Mom would have been appalled at my table manners.”
It was true.Their mother had emphasized etiquette and manners, hoping that one day her girls would have the opportunity to work in the Consumer Providence or even meet a guy and move there permanently, and she didn’t want them to look like they didn’t fit.
However, Kai knew that the lows she and her sister had fallen in the years since her parents’ deaths and the things they had to do to survive in the Dispatch District meant the two of them weren’t Consumer material.
But you’re a dragon king’s mate.Kai ignored that thought.It raised too many unanswered questions.Aodh was hiding something from her.She could feel it.In this room with her recovering sister, she wouldn’t get those answers, so there was no need to dwell on it.
“I think she’d understand.”
Morlie’s brow pinched.“Most of that food I’d never seen before or tasted.”Meeting her gaze, she said, “They told us nothing lived beyond the Wall.That anything that had survived was tainted or mutant-like beasts from the fallout.At the learning center, they made us review photos of disfigured people and animals and the ruined vegetation after the atomic bomb and said that it was the same beyond the Wall but worse.They lied.”
Kai saw the redness of her sister’s soft brown skin and heard the rage in her voice.She understood it.Their leaders either hadn’t sent scouts out to check the land once they knew it was safe to go above...or they had and knew the environment had regenerated.Either way, why had they withheld the truth?At an early age, Kai had taken care of herself and her sister, and she preferred to know all the facts and deal with things head-on.It was too late for her to challenge her leaders, but Aodh was different.
“Yes, they lied.”Kai leaned back and held her sister’s gaze.
Silence stretched between them for a moment before Morlie spoke again.“Tell me about this place and how you found it.”
“I didn’t find it, Aodh found us.”She sighed.“I tried to get you some help at the care plaza—”
“Wow, to go there, you must have been desperate.”Morlie shook her head.“Did they help?”
“No.Not at all.A medical attendant assisted me in getting you out of there and suggested you would find care beyond the Wall.”‘Wolves,’ she had said.
Morlie set her elbows on the table and leaned forward.“If she knew there was help outside the Wall, then others knew.”
“Yes.”
Her sister pursed her lips as her gaze darkened with anger.It was evident by Morlie’s line of questions that she didn’t recall anything.“Do you know why she helped you?Did she ask for money?”
Kai shook her head.“I think she felt sorry for you.She only said that you were marked, and if I cared for you, the best thing I could do was get you out of there.”
“Marked?”Morlie sat up straight.“What does that mean?”
Unsure how to say the words to Morlie, which had been on her mind since that night, Kai shifted forward and placed a hand over her sister’s.“I think it meant they marked you for death.”She squeezed her hand.“Know this, Morlie, I would never let that happen to you.I don’t care what I needed to do or who I had to kill to keep you safe.”
Morlie sucked in a shuddered breath and blinked.The water that began to fill her eyes when Kai stated they’d marked her for death fell over the edge of Morlie’s lower lids and splashed on the tabletop.
Standing, Kai pulled her baby sister into her arms.She held her close and rubbed along her back as Morlie wept.Kai’s eyes began to fill, too, as she felt her sister’s slim form shake and heard the racking sobs that came out.Kai could only imagine what was going through her sister’s mind after discovering that people refused to help and were willing to let her die.As long as Morlie had been sick, it also had to have affected her emotions.
“You’re okay, now, Morlie, and safe.”She continued to soothe her and speak softly in her ear.
It took several minutes, but eventually, Morlie’s crying subsided.
“Thank you, sissy.”Morlie pulled back and wiped her face with the back of her wrist.
